‘Dallas’ Promotion Brings $1.98 Gasoline to Manhattan for a Day

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On 10th Avenue, cars lined up for about two blocks to get fuel for $1.98 per gallon from the fantasy Ewing Energies filling station.CreditBenjamin Preston

By Benjamin Preston

Feb. 25, 2014

In an effort to create publicity for the premiere of the third season of “Dallas,” TNT’s reboot of the 1980s nighttime soap, the network on Monday dressed up a filling station in Manhattan to look as if it were owned by the show’s fictional Ewing family. But the fresh Ewing Energies logos decorating the awning over the fuel pumps were only part of the promotion.

Starting at 8 a.m., the station sold gasoline at $1.98 per gallon for the next 12 hours, meaning that customers taking advantage of the deal — limited to 26 gallons per customer — received a very real discount. The average price of regular unleaded gasoline in New York City on Monday was just under $3.75 per gallon.

“It’s our damn gas. We’ll charge what we want,” a full-page ad printed in the Sunday edition of The New York Times proclaimed, signed by John Ross Ewing, one of the show’s characters. “The oil business is all about supply and demand. You demand, I supply. And I want you to know, I hear your demands.”

The location of the Ewing Energies “flagship” Manhattan station, at 10th Avenue and 36th Street, was released on the show’s Facebook page Monday morning. Josh Henderson, who plays John Ross Ewing, appeared at a ribbon-cutting at the station.

Javid Louis, a public relations agent working with TNT, said in an interview that a crew spent all night turning the station — normally a BP station with a Dunkin’ Donuts inside — into a Ewing Energies fueling stop, complete with the not-so-faux $1.98 per gallon signs. Mr. Louis said that although BP did not have anything to do with the temporary changes, the station’s owner was on board with the transformation; another Ewing Energies-jacketed staff member onsite said TNT is paying the owner the difference between $1.98 and the normal per-gallon price.

Mr. Louis said traffic had been steady all day. A staff member at the site said that although the fuel deal was limited to cars and trucks, one person had arrived on a bicycle with empty fuel cans to fill. The customer was turned away.

At 3:30 p.m., the line of cars waiting to fill up stretched south for two blocks along 10th Avenue. Asked why there were not even more cars in line, an attendant directing traffic in front of the station — who declined to be named for this article — shrugged his shoulders and said that New Yorkers have places to be.

Mr. Louis said later in an email that the pace had quickened as the day progressed and that he expected more customers through rush hour.

Correction:

An earlier version of this article misstated Javid Louis’ affiliation with TNT. He is a public relations agent working with the network, not its spokesman.